Teaching Connection in an Augmented Reality

If you were like me and grew up in the great decade of the 80’s then you would have had a similar experience or likeness to a childhood of exploration. We were sent out after school until dinner with nothing but a stick and our imagination. Finding friends in the neighborhood was hard but we did it. We met up at the same place every day with a different adventure on our minds. When challenges presented themselves in our play whether it be a conflict of friends or a stumble on the bike, we figured it out, got up, and moved on. This was something that in the moment seemed so trivial yet later as technology made a hyper-fast leap, become so defined as the separation between two generations.

Our lives as children were much slower paced. Our brains were allowed to process things over time. Even our TV shows were slower. Looking at the pace of Mr. Rogers vs. Powerpuff Girls, you can clearly see that the brain of the child has changed and adapted to a new world full of instant gratification. An augmented reality. You see, we already live our lives frequently through our devices. We are already interacting with our environment in a brand new way being able to source anything we want, anywhere, just by the tap of a button.

A world is coming that no one will be prepared for. We don’t know truly how to as we don't know how fast technology will be integrated into our lives and what that will fully look like. What I do know is that children in this generation must be taught the social and personal skills to connect with their world. It is no longer an innate skill. We must put an importance upon the “soft skills” as they are defined and work to make sure that in an increasingly fast paced world our children don’t lose sight of what ties us all together….humanity.